While certain themes and motifs have preoccupied the features of Joel and Ethan Coen, the Brothers have never recycled a previous film with a mere change in window dressing. Every Coen joint feels like its own creature, and the sprawling classical Hollywood comedy Hail, Caesar!, is no exception. Set in the post-WWII years on the lot of the fictional Capitol Studios, the film focuses on no-nonsense fixer Eddie Maddix (Josh Brolin), who is tasked with keeping the studio’s actors, directors, and other employees focused on their jobs and out of the tabloids. Covering up indiscretions and soothing egos are Maddix’s normal duties, but a whopper of a hitch appears when Baird Whitlock (George Clooney), star of a new Ben-Hur-esque Bible epic, is kidnapped from his dressing room.
On the surface, Hail, Caesar! is a vehicle for the Brothers to craft breezy, loving homages to classical filmmaking personalities and scenes. Maddix’s to-and-fro bustling around the studio sound stages permits the film indulgences like a gallant singing cowboy reminiscent of Gene Autry, a sailor song-and-dance routine à la Anchors Aweigh, and a dazzling aquatic dance number in imitation of Footlight Parade. As usual, the Coens exhibit their characteristic affection for cock-eyed digressions that spiral into absurdity. However, the film slowly reveals more complex political and spiritual currents, which wriggle through the fizzy period dialog like shrewd serpents.
While A Serious Man was the Brother’s most unabashedly theological work, Hail, Caesar! is more inclined towards the practical role of faith in society and the life of the individual. Indeed, much of the film unfolds like a twisty Passion play, in which Maddix (and others) are tested, sacrificed, and reborn. Not incidentally, Hail, Caesar! is also the Coens’ feature most explicitly concerned with the movies themselves, and the humane potential improbably bound within Hollywood’s glorious fakery.
Hail, Caesar! opens Friday, February 5 in wide release.
